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    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 14,
    "slug": "16-formation-of-man-the-thinker-238",
    "title": "Formation of Man: the Thinker ... 238",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 13517,
    "text": "## Formation of Man: the Thinker ... 238\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol. 1, bk 1, sec 7a\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 238 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n##### STANZA VII. -- Continued.\n\n(5) **T**HE SPARK HANGS FROM THE FLAME BY THE FINEST\nTHREAD OF **F**OHAT. **I**T JOURNEYS\nTHROUGH THE **S**EVEN **W**ORLDS OF\n**M**AYA (*a*). **I**T STOPS\nIN THE FIRST (*Kingdom*),* *AND IS A METAL AND A\nSTONE; IT PASSES INTO THE SECOND (*Kingdom*),* *AND\nBEHOLD -- A PLANT; THE PLANT WHIRLS THROUGH SEVEN FORMS AND BECOMES\nA SACRED ANIMAL; (*the first shadow of the physical man*)*\n*(*b*)*.*\n\n**F**ROM THE COMBINED ATTRIBUTES OF THESE, MANU (*man*),*\n*THE THINKER, IS FORMED.\n\n**W**HO FORMS HIM? **T**HE SEVEN LIVES;\nAND THE ONE LIFE (*c*)*. ***W**HO COMPLETES\nHIM? **T**HE FIVEFOLD **L**HA. AND WHO\nPERFECTS THE LAST BODY? **F**ISH, SIN, AND SOMA (*the\nmoon*)* *(*d*)*.*\n\n(*a*)* *The phrase \"through the seven Worlds\nof Maya\" refers here to the seven globes of the planetary\nchain and the seven rounds, or the 49 stations of active existence\nthat are before the \"Spark\" or Monad, at the beginning\nof every \"Great Life-Cycle\" or Manvantara. The \"thread\nof Fohat\" is the thread of life before referred to.\n\nThis relates to the greatest problem of philosophy -- the physical\nand substantial nature of life, the independent nature of which\nis denied by modern science because that science is unable to\ncomprehend it. The reincarnationists and believers in Karma alone\ndimly perceive that the whole secret of Life is in the unbroken\nseries of its manifestations: whether in, or apart from, the physical\nbody. Because if --\n\n\"Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,\n\nStains the white radiance of Eternity\" --\n\nyet it is itself part and parcel of that Eternity; for life alone\ncan understand life.\n\nWhat is that \"Spark\" which \"hangs from the flame?\"\nIt is **J**IVA, the MONAD in conjunction with MANAS,\nor rather its aroma -- that which remains from each personality,\nwhen worthy, and hangs from Atma-Buddhi, the Flame, by the thread\nof life. In whatever way interpreted, and into whatever number\nof principles the human being is divided, it may easily be shown\nthat this doctrine is supported by all the ancient\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 239 CHALDEAN METAPHYSICS.\n\nreligions, from the Vedic to the Egyptian, from the Zoroastrian\nto the Jewish. In the case of the last-mentioned, the Kabalistic\nworks offer abundant proof of this statement. The entire system\nof the Kabalistic numerals is based on the divine septenary hanging\nfrom the Triad (thus forming the *Decade*)* *and\nits permutations 7, 5, 4, and 3, which, finally, all merge into\nthe ONE itself: an endless and boundless Circle.\n\n\"The Deity (the ever Invisible Presence),\" says the\nZohar, \"manifests itself through the *ten* Sephiroth\nwhich are its radiating witnesses. The Deity is like the Sea from\nwhich outflows a stream called WISDOM, the waters of which fall\ninto a lake named Intelligence. From the basin, like seven channels,\nissue the Seven Sephiroth. . . . . For *ten equal seven: *the\nDecade contains *four *Unities and *three *Binaries.\"\nThe ten Sephiroth correspond to the limbs of MAN. \"When I\nframed Adam Kadmon,\" the Elohim are made to say, \"the\nSpirit of the Eternal shot out of his Body like a sheet of lightning\nthat radiated at once on the billows of the *Seven *millions\nof skies, and my *ten* splendours were his limbs.\"\nBut neither the Head nor the shoulders of Adam-Kadmon can be seen;\ntherefore we read in the *Sephra Dzenioutha *(the \"Book\nof the Concealed Mystery\"): --\n\n\"In the beginning of Time, after the Elohim (the \"Sons\nof Light and Life,\" or the \"Builders\") had shaped\nout of the eternal Essence the Heavens and the Earth, they formed\nthe worlds six by six, the seventh being *Malkuth*,*\n*which is our Earth (see *Mantuan Codex*)* *on\nits plane, and the lowest on all the other planes of conscious\nexistence. The Chaldean *Book of Numbers *contains a detailed\nexplanation of all this. \"The first triad of the body of\nAdam Kadmon (the three upper planes of the seven*) cannot be seen\nbefore the soul stands in the presence of the Ancient of Days.\"\nThe Sephiroth of this upper triad are: -- \"1,* Kether\n*(the Crown) represented by the brow of Macroprosopos; 2,*\nChochmah *(Wisdom, a male Principle) by his right shoulder;\nand 3, *Binah *(Intelligence, a female Principle) by the\nleft shoulder.\" Then come the *seven *limbs (or Sephiroth)\non the planes of manifestation, the totality of these four planes\nbeing represented by *Microprosopus* (the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The formation of the \"living Soul\" or man, would render\nthe idea more clearly. \"A Living Soul\" is a synonym\nof man in the Bible. These are our seven \"Principles.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 240 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlesser Face) or Tetragrammaton, the \"four-lettered\"\nMystery. \"The seven manifested and the *three* concealed\nlimbs are the Body of the Deity.\"\n\nThus our Earth, *Malkuth*,* *is both the *Seventh\n*and the *Fourth *world, the former when counting from\nthe first globe above, the latter if reckoned by the planes. It\nis generated by the sixth globe or Sephiroth called *Yezod*,\n\"foundation,\" or as said in the Book of Numbers \"by\nYezod, He (Adam Kadmon) fecundates the primitive Heva\" (Eve\nor our Earth). Rendered in mystic language this is the explanation\nwhy Malkuth, called \"the inferior Mother,\" Matrona,\nQueen, and the Kingdom of the Foundation, is shown as the *Bride\n*of Tetragrammaton or Microprosopus (the 2nd Logos) the Heavenly\nMan. When free from all impurity she will become united with the\nSpiritual *Logos*,* i.e.*,* *in the 7th Race\nof the 7th Round -- after the regeneration, on the day of \"**S**ABBATH.\"\nFor the \"*seventh *day\" has again an occult significance\nundreamt of by our theologians.\n\n\"When Matronitha, the Mother, is separated and brought face\nto face with the King, in the excellence of the Sabbath, all things\nbecome one body,\" says verse 746, in chapter xxii. of \"Ha\nIdra Zuta Kadisha.\" \"Becomes one body\" means that\nall is reabsorbed once more into the one element, the spirits\nof men becoming *Nirvanees *and the elements of everything\nelse becoming again what they were before -- *protyle*\nor undifferentiated substance. \"Sabbath\" means *rest\n*or Nirvana. It is not the *seventh *day after *six\n*days but a period the duration of which equals that of the\nseven \"days\" or any period made up of seven parts. Thus\na *pralaya *is equal in duration to the manwantara, or\na night of Brahma is equal to this \"day.\" If the Christians\nwill follow Jewish customs they ought to adopt the spirit and\nnot the dead letter thereof: *i.e.*,* *to work one\nweek of seven days and *rest *seven days. That the word\n\"Sabbath\" had a mystic significance is shown in the\ncontempt shown by Jesus for the Sabbath day, and by what is said\nin Luke xviii. 12. Sabbath is there taken *for the whole week.\n*(See Greek text where the week is called *Sabbath. *\"I\nfast twice in the Sabbath.\") Paul, an Initiate, knew it well\nwhen referring to the eternal rest and felicity in heaven, as\nSabbath; \"and their happiness will be eternal, for they will\never be (*one*)* *with the Lord and will enjoy *an\neternal Sabbath.*\"* *(Hebrew iv. 2.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 241 THE TRUE AND THE FALSE KABALA.\n\nThe difference between the two systems, taking the Kabala as contained\nin the Chaldean *Book of Numbers*,* *not as misrepresented\nby its now disfigured copy, the Kabala of the Christian mystics\n--the Kabala and the archaic esoteric Vidya, is very small indeed,\nbeing confined to unimportant divergences of form and expression.\nThus Eastern occultism refers to our earth as the fourth world,\nthe lowest of the chain, above which run upward on both its sides\nthe six globes, three on each side. *The Zohar*,* *on\nthe other hand, calls the earth the lower, or the *Seventh*,*\n*adding that upon the six depend all things which are in it,\n\"Microprosopus.\" The \"smaller face,\" smaller\nbecause manifested and finite, \"is formed of *six Sephiroth*,\"*\n*says the same work. \"Seven kings come and *die in\nthe thrice*-*destroyed world*\" --* *(Malkuth\nour earth, destroyed after each of the three rounds which it has\ngone through). \"And their reign (of the seven kings) will\nbe broken up.\" (*Book of Numbers*,* *1.*\n*viii., 3.) This relates to the Seven Races, five of which\nhave already appeared, and two more have still to appear in this\nRound.\n\nThe Shinto allegorical accounts of Cosmogony and the origin of\nman in Japan hint at the same belief.\n\nCaptain C. Pfoundes studied for nearly nine years in the monasteries\nof Japan the religion underlying the various sects of the land.\n. . . . . \"The Shinto idea of creation,\" he says, \"is\nas follows: Out of chaos (*Konton*)* *the earth\n(*in*) was the sediment precipitated, and the Heavens (*yo*)*\n*the ethereal essences which ascended: *Maa *(*jin*)*\n*appeared between the two. The first man was called Kuni-to\nko tatchi-no-mikoto, and *five other names were given to him*,*\n*and then the human race appeared, male and female. Isanagi\nand Isanami begat *Tenshoko doijin*,* *the first\nof the five gods of the Earth.\" These \"gods\" are\nsimply our five races, Isanagi and Isanami being the two kinds\nof the \"ancestors,\" the two preceding races which give\nbirth to animal and to rational man.\n\nIt will be shown (Vol. II. Pt. II.) that the number seven, as\nwell as the doctrine of the septenary constitution of man, was\npre-eminent in all the secret systems. It plays as important a\npart in Western Kabala as in Eastern Occultism. Eliphas Levi calls\nthe number seven \"the key to the Mosaic creation and the\nsymbols of every religion.\" He shows the Kabala following\nfaithfully even the septenary division of man, as the diagram\nhe gives in his \"*Clef des Grands Mysteres*\"*\n*is septenary. This\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 242 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nmay be seen at a glance on page 389, \"*Une prophetic et\ndiverses pensees de Paracelse*,\"* *however cleverly\nthe correct thought is veiled. One needs also only to look at\nthe diagram (Plate VII. in Mr. Mathers' Kabala) \"the formation\nof the Soul\"* from the same \"Key of the Great Mysteries\"\nby Levi to find the same, though with a different interpretation.\n\nThus it stands with both the Kabalistic and the Occult names attached:\n--\n\n####### [[Footnote(s) to diagram]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Nephesch is the \"breath of (animal) life\" breathed\ninto Adam, the man of dust; it is consequently the *Vital Spark*,*\n*the informing element. Without *Manas*,* *or\nwhat is miscalled in Levi's diagram Nephesch instead of Manas,\n\"the reasoning Soul,\" or mind, Atma-Buddhi are irrational\non this plane and cannot act. It is Buddhi which is the plastic\nmediator, not Manas, \"the intelligent medium between the\nupper Triad and the lower Quaternary.\" But there are many\nsuch strange and curious transformations to be found in the Kabalistic\nworks -- a convincing proof that its literature has become a sad\njumble. We do not accept the classification except in this one\nparticular, in order to show the points of agreement.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 243 OCCULT AND KABALISTIC DOCTRINES.\n\nWe will now give in tabular form what the very cautious Eliphas\nLevi says in explanation of his diagram, and what the Esoteric\nDoctrine teaches -- and compare the two. Levi, too, makes a distinction\nbetween Kabalistic and Occult Pneumatics. (See \"*Histoire\nde la Magic*,\"* *pp. 388, 389.)\n\n[[first column]]\n\nSays Eliphas Levi, the Kabalist: --\n\n**K**ABALISTIC **P**NEUMATICS.\n\n1. The Soul (or EGO) is a clothed light; and this light is triple.\n\n2. *Neschamah *--* *\"pure Spirit.\"\n\n3. *Ruach *--* *the Soul or Spirit.\n\n4. *Nephesch *--* *plastic mediator.**\n\n5. The garment of the Soul is the rind (body) of the image (astral\nSoul).\n\n6. The image is double, because it reflects the good as the bad.\n\n7. Imago, body.\n\n-------\n\n**O**CCULT **P**NEUMATICS.\n\n*As given by Eliphas Levi.*\n\n1.* Nephesh *is immortal because it renews its life by\nthe destruction of forms.\n\n[But* Nephesh*,* *the \"breath of\n\n[[first column continued on next page]]\n\n[[second column]]\n\nSay the Theosophists: --\n\n**E**SOTERIC **P**NEUMATICS.\n\n1. Ditto, for it is Atma-Buddhi-*Manas.*\n\n2. Ditto.*\n\n3. Spiritual Soul.\n\n4. Mediator between Spirit and its Man, the Seat of Reason, the\nMind, in man.\n\n5. Correct.\n\n6. Too uselessly apocalyptic. Why not say that the *astral\n*reflects the good as well as the bad man; man, who is ever\ntending to the upper triangle, or else disappears with the Quaternary.\n\n7. Ditto, the earthly image.\n\n-------\n\n**O**CCULT **P**NEUMATICS.\n\n*As given by the Occultists.*\n\n1.* Manas *is immortal, because after every new incarnation\nit adds to Atma-Buddhi something of itself, and\n\n[[second column continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Eliphas Levi has, whether purposely or otherwise, confused the\nnumbers: with us his No. 2 is No. 1. (Spirit); and by making of\nNephesch both the plastic mediator and Life, he thus makes in\nreality only six principles, because he repeats the first two.\n\n** Esotericism teaches the same. But Manas is not Nephesch; nor\nis the latter the astral, but the 4th principle, if also the 2nd\n*prana*,* *for Nephesch is the \"breath of life\"\nin man, as in beast or insect, of physical, material life, which\nhas no spirituality in it.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 244 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[first column continued from last page]]\n\nlife,\" is a misnomer and a useless puzzle to the student.]\n\n2.* Ruach *progresses by the evolution of ideas (! ?).\n\n3.* Neschamah *is progressive without oblivion and destruction.\n\n4. The soul has three dwellings.\n\n5. These dwellings are: the plane of the mortals: the Superior\nEden; and the Inferior Eden.\n\n6. The image (man) is a sphinx that offers the riddle of birth.\n\n7. The fatal image (the astral) endows Nephesch with its aptitudes;\nbut Ruach is able to substitute for this (vitiated) Nephesch the\nimage\n\n[[first column continued on next page]]\n\n[[second column continued from last page]]\n\nthus, assimilating itself to the Monad, shares its immortality.\n\n2. *Buddhi *becomes conscious by the accretions it gets\nfrom Manas after every new incarnation and the death of man.\n\n3. *Atma *neither progresses, forgets, nor remembers. It\ndoes not belong to this plane: it is but the ray of light eternal\nwhich shines upon and through the darkness of matter -- when the\nlatter is willing.\n\n4. The Soul (collectively, as the upper Triad) lives on three\nplanes, besides its fourth, the terrestrial sphere; and it *exists\n*eternally on the highest of the three.\n\n5. These dwellings are: Earth for the physical man, or the animal\nSoul; Kama-loka (Hades, the Limbo) for the disembodied man, or\nhis *Shell; *Devachan for the higher Triad.\n\n6. Correct.\n\n7. The astral through Kama (desire) is ever drawing Manas down\ninto the sphere of material passions and desires. But if the *better\n*man\n\n[[second column continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 245 OCCULTISTS AND KABALISTS DIFFER.\n\n[[first column continued from last page]]\n\nconquered in accordance with the inspirations of *Neschamah.*\n\n-------\n\n[[second column continued from last page]]\n\nor *Manas *tries to escape the fatal attraction and turns\nits aspirations to Atma -- Spirit -- then Buddhi (Ruach) conquers,\nand carries Manas with it to the realm of eternal Spirit.\n\n-------\n\nIt is very evident that the French Kabalist either did not know\nsufficiently the real tenet, or distorted it to suit himself and\nhis object. Thus he says again, treating upon the same subject,\nand we, Occultists, answer the late Kabalist and his admirers:\n--\n\n[[first column]]\n\n1. The body is the mould of Nephesch; Nephesch the mould of Ruach;\nRuach the mould *of* *the garments of Neschamah.*\n\n2. Light (the Soul) personifies in clothing itself (with a body);\nand personality endures only when the garment is perfect.\n\n3. The angels aspire to become men; a perfect man, a man-god is\nabove all the angels.\n\n4. Every 14,000 years the soul rejuvenates and rests in the jubilean\nsleep of oblivion.\n\n[[second column]]\n\n1. The body follows the whims, good or bad, of *Manas; *Manas\ntries to follow the light of Buddhi, but often fails. Buddhi is\nthe mould of the \"garments\" of Atma, because Atma is\nno body, or shape, or anything, and because Buddhi is its vehicle\nonly *figuratively.*\n\n2*.* The Monad becomes a personal ego when it incarnates;\nand something remains of that personality through Manas, when\nthe latter is perfect enough to assimilate Buddhi.\n\n3. Correct.\n\n4. Within a period, \"a great age\" or a day of Brahrna,\n14 Manus reign; after which comes Pralaya when all the Souls rest\nin Nirvana. (Souls = Egos).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 246 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSuch are the distorted copies of the esoteric doctrine in the\nKabala. But see also \"The Primeval Manus of Humanity\"\nin Book II.\n\nTo return to Stanza VII.\n\n(*b*)* *The well-known Kabalistic aphorism runs:\n-- \"A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; the beast,\na man; a man a spirit; and the spirit a god.\" The \"spark\"\nanimates all the kingdoms in turn before it enters into and informs\ndivine man, between whom and his predecessor, animal man, there\nis all the difference in the world. Genesis begins its anthropology\nat the wrong end (evidently for a blind) and lands nowhere.* Had\nit begun as it ought, one would have found in it, first, the celestial\nLogos, the \"Heavenly Man,\" which evolves as a Compound\nUnit of Logoi, out of whom after their pralayic sleep -- a sleep\nthat gathers the cyphers scattered on the Mayavic plane into One,\nas the separate globules of quicksilver on a plate blend into\none mass -- the Logoi appear in their totality as the first \"male\nand female\" or Adam Kadmon, the \"Fiat Lux\" of the\nBible, as we have already seen. But this transformation did not\ntake place on our Earth, nor on any material plane, but in the\nSpacial Depths of the first differentiation of the eternal Root-matter.\nOn our nascent globe things proceed differently. The Monad or\nJiva, as said in \"Isis Unveiled,\" vol. i., p. 302, is,\nfirst of all, shot down by the law of Evolution into the lowest\nform of matter -- the mineral. After a sevenfold gyration encased\nin the stone (or that which will become mineral and stone in the\nFourth Round), it creeps out of it, say, as a lichen. Passing\nthence, through all the forms of vegetable matter, into what is\ntermed animal matter, it has now reached the point in which it\nhas become the germ, so to speak, of the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The introductory chapters of Genesis were never meant to represent\neven a remote allegory of the creation of our Earth. They embrace\na metaphysical conception of some indefinite period in the eternity,\nwhen successive attempts were being made by the law of evolution\nat the formation of universes. The idea is plainly stated in the\nZohar: \"There were old worlds, which perished as soon as\nthey came into existence, were formless, and were called Sparks.\nThus, the smith, when hammering the iron, lets the sparks fly\nin all directions. The sparks are the primordial worlds, which\ncould not continue because the *Sacred Aged *(Sephira)\nhad not as yet assumed its form (of androgyne, or opposite sexes)\nof King and Queen (Sephira and Kadmon), and the Master was not\nyet at his work.\" See Zohar, \"Idra Suta,\" Book\niii., p. 292, *b. *The Supreme consulting with the Architect\nof the world -- his Logos -- about creation. (\"Isis Unveiled,\"\nvol. ii., p. 421.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 247 SPIRIT ALONE IS HELPLESS ON EARTH.\n\nanimal, that will become the physical man. All this, up to the\nThird Round, is formless, as matter, and senseless, as consciousness.\nFor the Monad or Jiva *per se *cannot be even called spirit:\nit is a ray, a breath of the **A**BSOLUTE, or the\nAbsoluteness rather, and the Absolute Homogeneity, having no relations\nwith the conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on\nour plane. Therefore, besides the material which will be needed\nfor its future human form, the monad requires (*a*) a spiritual\nmodel, or prototype, for that material to shape itself into; and\n(*b*) an intelligent consciousness to guide its evolution\nand progress, neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous\nmonad, or by senseless though living matter. The Adam of dust\nrequires the *Soul of Life *to be breathed into him: the\ntwo middle principles, which are the *sentient *life of\nthe irrational animal and the Human Soul, for the former is irrational\nwithout the latter. It is only when, from a potential androgyne,\nman has become separated into male and female, that he will be\nendowed with this conscious, rational, individual Soul, (*Manas*)*\n*\"the principle, or the intelligence, of the Elohim,\"\nto receive which, he has to eat of the fruit of Knowledge from\nthe Tree of Good and Evil. How is he to obtain all this? The Occult\ndoctrine teaches that while the monad is cycling on downward into\nmatter, these very Elohim -- or Pitris, the lower Dhyan-Chohans\n-- are evolving *pari passu *with it on a higher and more\nspiritual plane, descending also relatively into matter on their\nown plane of consciousness, when, after having reached a certain\npoint, they will meet the incarnating senseless monad, encased\nin the lowest matter, and blending the two potencies, Spirit and\nMatter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the\n\"Heavenly Man\" in space -- PERFECT MAN. In the Sankhya\nphilosophy, Purusha (spirit) is spoken of as something impotent\nunless he mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti (matter), which,\nleft alone, is -- senseless. But in the secret philosophy they\nare viewed as graduated. Though one and the same thing in their\norigin, Spirit and Matter, when once they are on the plane of\ndifferentiation, begin each of them their evolutionary progress\nin contrary directions -- Spirit falling gradually into matter,\nand the latter ascending to its original condition, that of a\npure spiritual substance. Both are inseparable, yet ever separated.\nIn polarity, on the physical plane, two like poles will always\nrepel each other, while the negative and the positive are mutually\nattracted, so do Spirit and Matter stand to each other -- the\ntwo poles of the same homogeneous substance, the root-principle\nof the universe.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 248 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nTherefore, when the hour strikes for Purusha to mount on Prakriti's\nshoulders for the formation of the Perfect Man -- rudimentary\nman of the first 2 1/2 Races being only the *first*,*\n*gradually evolving into *the most perfect of mammals *--*\n*the Celestial \"Ancestors\" (Entities from preceding\nworlds, called in India the Sishta) step in on this our plane,\nas the Pitris had stepped in before them for the formation of\nthe physical or animal-man, and incarnate in the latter. Thus\nthe two processes -- for the two *creations: *the animal\nand the divine man -- differ greatly. The Pitris shoot out from\ntheir ethereal bodies, still more ethereal and shadowy similitudes\nof themselves, or what we should now call \"doubles,\"\nor \"astral forms,\" in their own likeness.* This furnishes\nthe Monad with its first dwelling, and blind matter with a model\naround and upon which to build henceforth. But *Man is still\nincomplete. *From Swayambhuva Manu (in Manu, Book I.), from\nwhom descended the seven primitive Manus or Prajapati, each of\nwhom gave birth to a primitive race of men, down to the Codex\nNazareus, in which Karabtanos or Fetahil (blind concupiscent matter)\nbegets on his Mother, \"Spiritus,\" seven figures, each\nof which stands as the progenitor of one of the primaeval seven\nraces -- this doctrine has left its impress on every Archaic Scripture.\n\n\"Who forms Manu (the Man) and who forms his body? The **L**IFE\nand the **L**IVES. Sin** and the MOON.\" Here\nManu stands for the spiritual, heavenly man, the real and non-dying\n**E**GO in us, which is the direct emanation of the\n\"One Life\" or the Absolute Deity. As to our outward\nphysical bodies, the house of the tabernacle of the Soul, the\nDoctrine teaches a strange lesson; so strange that unless thoroughly\nexplained and as rightly comprehended, it is only the exact Science\nof the future that is destined to vindicate the theory fully.\n\nIt has been stated before now that Occultism does not accept anything\ninorganic in the Kosmos. The expression employed by Science, \"inorganic\nsubstance,\" means simply that the latent life slumbering\nin the molecules of so-called \"inert matter\" is incognizable.\n**A**LL IS **L**IFE, and every atom\nof even mineral dust is a **L**IFE, though beyond\nour comprehension and perception, because it is outside the range\nof the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Read in Isis, vol. ii., pp. 297-303, the doctrine of the Codex\nNazaraeus -- every tenet of our teaching is found there under\na different form and allegory.\n\n** The word \"Sin\" is curious, but has a particular Occult\nrelation to the Moon, besides being its Chaldean equivalent.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 249 MATTER, LIFE AND SUBSTANCE.\n\nlaws known to those who reject Occultism. \"The very Atoms,\"\nsays Tyndall, \"seem instinct with a desire for life.\"\nWhence, then, we would ask, comes the tendency \"to run into\norganic form\"? Is it in any way explicable except according\nto the teachings of Occult Science?\n\n\"*The worlds*,* to the profane*,\"*\nsays a Commentary*,* *\"*are built up of the\nknown Elements.* *To the conception of an Arhat*,*\nthese Elements are themselves collectively a divine Life; distributively*,*\non the plane of manifestations*,* the numberless and countless\ncrores of lives.* Fire alone is ****ONE***,*\non the plane of the One*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Is Pasteur unconsciously taking the first step toward Occult\nScience in declaring that, if he dared express his full idea upon\nthis subject, he would say that the Organic cells are endowed\nwith a vital potency that does not cease its activity with the\ncessation of a current of Oxygen towards them, and does not, on\nthat account, break off its relations with life itself, which\nis supported by the influence of that gas? \"I would add,\"\ngoes on Pasteur, \"that the evolution of the germ is accomplished\nby means of complicated phenomena, among which we must class processes\nof fermentation\"; and life, according to Claude Bernard and\nPasteur, is nothing else than a process of fermentation. That\nthere exist in Nature Beings or Lives that can live and thrive\nwithout air, even on our globe, was demonstrated by the same men\nof science. Pasteur found that many of the lower lives, such as\nVibriones, and some microbes and bacteria, could exist without\nair, which, on the contrary, killed them. They derived the oxygen\nnecessary for their multiplication from the various substances\nthat surround them. He calls them *AErobes*,* *living\non the tissues of our matter when the latter has ceased to form\na part of an integral and living whole (then called very unscientifically\nby science \"dead matter\"), and *Anaerobes. *The\none kind binds oxygen, and contributes vastly to the destruction\nof animal life and vegetable tissues, furnishing to the atmosphere\nmaterials which enter later on into the constitution of other\norganisms; the other destroys, or rather annihilates finally,\nthe so-called organic substance; ultimate decay being impossible\nwithout their participation. Certain germ-cells, such as those\nof yeast, develop and multiply in air, but when deprived of it,\nthey will adapt themselves to life without air and become ferments,\nabsorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with them,\nand thereby ruining the latter. The cells in fruit, when lacking\nfree oxygen, act as ferments and stimulate fermentation. \"Therefore\nthe vegetable cell manifests in this case its life as an anaerobic\nbeing. Why, then, should an organic cell form in this case an\nexception\"? asks Professor Bogolubof. Pasteur shows that\nin the substance of our tissues and organs, the cell, not finding\nsufficient oxygen for itself, stimulates fermentation in the same\nway as the fruit-cell, and Claude Bernard thought that Pasteur's\nidea of the formation of ferments found its application and corroboration\nin the fact that Urea increases in the blood during strangulation:\n**L**IFE therefore is everywhere in the Universe,\nand, Occultism teaches us, it is also in the atom. Also see *infra*,*\n*at the close of this Section.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 250 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*Reality: on that* *of manifested*,* hence illusive*,*\nbeing*,* its particles are fiery lives which live and have\ntheir being at the expense of every other life that they consume.\nTherefore they are named the *\"**DEVOURERS***.*\"*\n. . . *\"*Every visible thing in this Universe was\nbuilt by such ***LIVES**,* front conscious\nand divine primordial man down to the unconscious agents that\nconstruct matter.*\"* . *. . \"*From the\n***ONE LIFE*** formless and Uncreate*,*\nproceeds the Universe of lives. First was manifested from the\nDeep *(*Chaos*)* cold luminous fire *(*gaseous\nlight?*)* which formed the curds in Space.*\"*\n*(*Irresolvable nebulae*,* perhaps?*). . . .\n. . .\" . . . *These fought*,* and a great heat\nwas developed by the encountering and collision*,* which\nproduced rotation. Then came the first manifested ***MATERIAL**,*\nFire*,* the hot flames*,* the wanderers in heaven\n*(*comets*)*; heat generates moist vapour; that\nforms solid water *(*?*)*; then dry mist*,*\nthen liquid mist*,* watery*,* that puts out the\nluminous brightness of the pilgrims *(*comets?*)*\nand forms solid watery wheels *(**MATTER***\nglobes*)*. Bhumi *(*the Earth*)* appears\nwith six sisters.* These produce by their continuous motion the\ninferior fire*,* heat*,* and an aqueous mist*,*\nwhich yields the third World*-*Element *--* ***WATER***;\nand from the breath of all *(*atmospheric*)* ***AIR***\nis born. These four are the four lives of the first four periods\n*(*Rounds*)* of Manvantara. The three last will\nfollow.*\"\n\nThis means that every new Round develops one of the Compound Elements,\nas now known to Science, -- which rejects the primitive nomenclature,\npreferring to subdivide them into constituents. If Nature is the\n\"Ever-becoming\" on the manifested plane, then those\nElements are to be regarded in the same light: they have to evolve,\nprogress, and increase to the Manvantaric end. Thus the First\nRound, we are taught, developed but one Element, and a nature\nand humanity in what may be called one aspect of Nature -- called\nby some, very unscientifically, though it may be so *de facto*,*\n*\"One-dimensional Space.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is a Vedic teaching that \"there are three Earths corresponding\nto three Heavens, and our Earth (the fourth) is called Bhumi.\"\nThis is the explanation given by our exoteric Western Orientalists.\nBut the esoteric meaning and allusion to it in the Vedas is that\nit refers to our planetary chain, three \"Earths\" on\nthe descending arc, and three \"heavens\" which are the\nthree Earths or globes also, only far more ethereal, on the ascending\nor spiritual arc: by the first three we descend into matter, by\nthe other three we ascend into Spirit; the lower one, *Bhumi*,\nour Earth, forming the turning point, so to say, and containing\n*potentially *as much of Spirit as it does of Matter. We\nshall treat of this hereafter.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 251 THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF SPACE.\n\nThe Second Round brought forth and developed two Elements -- Fire\nand Earth -- and *its* humanity, adapted to this condition\nof Nature, if we can give the name Humanity to beings living under\nconditions unknown to men, was -- to use again a familiar phrase\nin a strictly figurative sense (the only way in which it can be\nused correctly) -- \"a two-dimensional species.\" The\nprocesses of natural development which we are now considering\nwill at once elucidate and discredit the fashion of speculating\non the attributes of the *two*,* three*,* *and*\nfour *or more \"dimensional Space;\" but in passing,\nit is worth while to point out the real significance of the sound\nbut incomplete intuition that has prompted -- among Spiritualists\nand Theosophists, and several great men of Science, for the matter\nof that* -- the use of the modern expression, \"the fourth\ndimension of Space.\" To begin with, of course, the superficial\nabsurdity of assuming that Space itself is measurable in any direction\nis of little consequence. The familiar phrase can only be an abbreviation\nof the fuller form -- *the *\"*Fourth dimension\nof *MATTER *in Space.*\"*** *But it is an\nunhappy phrase even thus expanded, because while it is perfectly\ntrue that the progress of evolution may be destined to introduce\nus to new characteristics of matter, those with which we are already\nfamiliar are really more numerous than the three dimensions. The\nfaculties, or what is perhaps the best available term, the characteristics\nof matter, must clearly bear a direct relation always to the senses\nof man. Matter has extension, colour, motion (molecular motion),\ntaste, and smell, corresponding to the existing senses of man,\nand by the time that it fully develops the next characteristic\n-- let us call it for the moment **P**ERMEABILITY\n-- this will correspond to the next sense of man -- let us call\nit \"**N**ORMAL **C**LAIRVOYANCE;\"\nthus, when some bold thinkers have been thirsting for a fourth\ndimension to explain the passage of matter through matter, and\nthe production of knots upon an endless cord, what they were really\nin want of, was a *sixth characteristic of matter. *The\nthree dimensions belong really but to one attribute or characteristic\nof matter -- extension; and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Professor Zollner's theory has been more than welcomed by several\nScientists --who are Spiritualists -- Professors Butlerof and\nWagner, of St. Petersburg, for instance.\n\n** \"The giving reality to abstractions is the error of Realism.\nSpace and Time are frequently viewed as separated from all the\nconcrete experiences of the mind, instead of being generalizations\nof these in certain aspects.\" (Bain, *Logic*,*\n*Part II., p. 389.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 252 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\npopular common sense justly rebels against the idea that under\nany condition of things there can be more than three of such dimensions\nas length, breadth, and thickness. These terms, and the term \"dimension\"\nitself, all belong to one plane of thought, to one stage of evolution,\nto one characteristic of matter. So long as there are foot-rules\nwithin the resources of Kosmos, to apply to matter, so long will\nthey be able to measure it three ways and no more; and from the\ntime the idea of measurement first occupied a place in the human\nunderstanding, it has been possible to apply measurement in three\ndirections and no more. But these considerations do not militate\nin any way against the certainty that in the progress of time\n-- as the faculties of humanity are multiplied -- so will the\ncharacteristics of matter be multiplied also. Meanwhile, the expression\nis far more incorrect than even the familiar one of the \"Sun\nrising or setting.\"\n\nWe now return to the consideration of material evolution through\nthe Rounds. Matter in the *second *Round, it has been stated,\nmay be figuratively referred to as two-dimensional. But here another\n*caveat* must be entered. That loose and figurative expression\nmay be regarded -- in one plane of thought, as we have just seen\n-- as equivalent to the second characteristic of matter corresponding\nto the second perceptive faculty or sense of man. But these two\nlinked scales of evolution are concerned with the processes going\non within the limits of a single Round. The succession of primary\naspects of Nature with which the succession of Rounds is concerned,\nhas to do, as already indicated, with the development of the \"Elements\"\n(in the Occult sense) -- Fire, Air, Water,* Earth. We are only\nin the fourth Round, and our catalogue so far stops short. The\ncentres of consciousness (destined to develop into humanity as\nwe know it) of the third Round arrived at a perception of the\nthird Element Water.** Those of the fourth Round have added\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The order in which these Elements are placed above is the correct\none for esoteric purposes and in the Secret Teachings. Milton\nwas right when he spoke of the \"Powers of Fire, Air, Water,\nEarth\"; the Earth, such as we know it now, had no existence\nbefore the 4th Round, hundreds of million years ago, the commencement\nof our geological Earth. The globe was \"*fiery*,*\ncool and radiant *as its ethereal men and animals during the\nfirst Round,\" says the Commentary, uttering a contradiction\nor paradox in the opinion of our present Science; \"*luminous\n*and more dense and heavy during the second Round; watery\nduring the Third!\" Thus are the elements reversed.\n\n** If we had to frame our conclusions according to the data furnished\nto us by the [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 253 THE GREAT ARCHAEUS.\n\n*earth *as a state of matter to their stock as well as\nthe three other elements in their present transformation. In short,\nnone of the so-called elements were, in the three preceding Rounds,\nas they are now. For all we know, FIRE may have been *pure *AKASA,\nthe first Matter of the *Magnum Opus of *the Creators and\n\"Builders,\" that Astral Light which the paradoxical\nEliphas Levi calls in one breath \"the body of the Holy Ghost,\"\nand in the next \"Baphomet,\" the \"Androgyne Goat\nof Mendes\"*; AIR, simply\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] geologists, then we\nwould say that there was no real water -- even during the Carboniferous\nperiod. We are told that gigantic masses of carbon, which existed\nformerly spread in the atmosphere as Carbonic Acid, were absorbed\nby plants, while a large proportion of that gas was mixed in the\nwater. Now, if this be so, and we have to believe that all the\nCarbonic Acid which went to compose those plants that formed bituminous\ncoal, lignite, etc., and went towards the formation of limestone,\nand so on, that all this was at that period in the atmosphere\nin gaseous form, then, there must have been seas and oceans of\nliquid carbonic acid? But how then could the carboniferous period\nbe preceded by the Devonian and Silurian ages -- those of Fishes\nand Molluscs -- on that assumption? Barometric pressure, moreover,\nmust have exceeded several hundred times the pressure of our present\natmosphere. How could organisms, even so simple as those of certain\nfishes and molluscs, stand that? There is a curious work by Blanchard,\non the Origin of Life, wherein he shows some strange contradictions\nand confusions in the theories of his colleagues, and which we\nrecommend to the reader's attention.\n\n* Eliphas Levi shows it very truly \"a force in Nature,\"\nby means of which \"a single man who can master it . . . might\nthrow the world into confusion and transform its face\"; for\nit is the \"great Arcanum of transcendent Magic.\" Quoting\nthe words of the great Western Kabalist in their translated form\n(see *The Mysteries of Magic*,* *by* *A.\nE. Waite), we may explain them perhaps the better by the occasional\naddition of a word or two to show the difference between Western\nand Eastern explanations of the same subject. The Author says\nof the great Magic Agent -- \"This ambient and all-penetrating\nfluid, this ray detached from the (Central or 'Spiritual') Sun's\nsplendour . . . fixed by the weight of the atmosphere (?!) and\nthe power of central attraction . . . the Astral Light, this electromagnetic\nether, this vital and luminous caloric, is represented on ancient\nmonuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and\nin ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem\nof prudence and of Saturn\" -- emblem of infinity, immortality,\nand Kronos -- \"Time\" -- not the god Saturn or the planet.\n\"It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of\nthe caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but it is also the brazen\nsnake of Moses encircling the Tau lastly, it is the devil of exoteric\ndogmatism, and is really the blind force (it is not blind, and\nLevi knew it), which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves\nfrom the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will\nbe absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will\nreturn to the central and eternal fire.\" This great *archaeus\n*is now discovered by, and only *for one man *-- Mr.\nJ. W. Keeley, of [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 254 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nNitrogen, \"the breath of the Supporters of the Heavenly Dome,\"\nas the Mohammedan mystics call it; WATER, that primordial fluid\nwhich was required, according to Moses, to make *a living soul\n*with. And this may account for the flagrant discrepancies\nand unscientific statements found in Genesis. Separate the first\nfrom the second chapter; read the former as a scripture of the\nElohists, and the latter as that of the far younger Jehovists;\nstill one finds, if one reads between the lines, the same order\nin which things created appear -- namely, Fire (light), Air, Water,\nand MAN (or the Earth). For the sentence: \"In the beginning\nGod created Heaven and Earth\" is a mistranslation; it is\nnot \"Heaven and Earth,\" but the *duplex *or dual\nHeaven, the *upper *and the *lower *Heavens, or\nthe separation of primordial substance that was light in its upper\nand dark in its lower portions -- or the manifested Universe --\nin its duality of the *invisible *(to the senses) and the\n*visible *to our perceptions. God divided the light from\nthe Darkness (v. 4); and then made the firmament, air (5), \"a\nfirmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters\nfrom the waters,\" (6), *i.e.*, \"the waters which\nwere under the firmament (our manifested visible Universe) from\nthe waters *above *the firmament,\" or the (to us)\ninvisible planes of being. In the second chapter (the Jehovistic),\nplants and herbs are created before water, just as in the first,\n*light is produced before the Sun. *\"God made the\nEarth and the Heavens and every plant of the field *before\nit was in the Earth *and every herb of the field *before\nit grew; *for the Elohim ('gods') had not caused it to rain\nupon the earth, etc.\" (v. 5) -- an absurdity unless the esoteric\nexplanation is accepted. The plants *were *created before\nthey were in the earth -- *for there was no earth then such\nas it is now; *and the herb of the field was in existence\nbefore it grew as it does now in the fourth Round.\n\nDiscussing and explaining the nature of the invisible Elements\nand the \"primordial fire\" mentioned above, Eliphas Levi\ncalls it invariably the \"Astral Light.\" It is the \"grand\nAgent Magique\" with him; undeniably it is so, but -- only\nso far as *Black *Magic is concerned, and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Philadelphia. For others,\nhowever, it is discovered, yet must remain almost useless. \"So\nfar shalt thou go. . . .\"\n\nAll the above is as practical as it is correct, save one error,\nwhich we will explain in the text further on. Eliphas Levi commits\na great blunder in always identifying the Astral Light with what\nwe call Akasa. What it really is will be given in Part II. of\nVol. II.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 255 BUT WHY SLANDER THE INDIAN HIEROPHANTS?\n\non the lowest planes of what we call Ether, the noumenon of which\nis Akasa; and even this would be held incorrect by orthodox Occultists.\nThe \"Astral Light\" is simply the older \"*sidereal\n*Light\" of Paracelsus; and to say that \"everything\nwhich exists has been evolved from it, and it preserves and reproduces\nall forms,\" as he writes, is to enunciate truth only in the\nsecond proposition. The first is erroneous; for if all that exists\nwas evolved *through *(or* via*)* *it, it\nis not the astral light. The latter is not the container of *all\n*things but only the reflector, at best, of this *all.*\nEliphas Levi writes: --\n\n\"The great Magic agent is the fourth emanation of the life\nprinciple (we say -- it is the first in the inner, and the second\nin the outer (our) Universe), of which the Sun is the third form\n. . . for the day-star (the sun) is only the reflection and material\nshadow of the Central Sun of truth, which illuminates the intellectual\n(invisible) world of Spirit and which itself is but a gleam borrowed\nfrom the **A**BSOLUTE.\"\n\nSo far he is right enough. But when the great authority of the\nWestern Kabalists adds that nevertheless, \"it is not the\nimmortal Spirit as the Indian Hierophants have imagined\"\n-- we answer that he slanders the said Hierophants, as they have\nsaid nothing of the kind; while even the Puranic exoteric writings\nflatly contradict the assertion. No Hindu has ever mistaken *Prakriti\n*-- the* *Astral Light being only above the lowest\nplane of Prakriti, the material Kosmos -- for the \"immortal\nSpirit.\" Prakriti is ever called *Maya*,* *illusion,\nand is doomed to disappear with the rest, the gods included, at\nthe hour of the Pralaya; for it is shown that Akasa is not even\nthe Ether, least of all then, we imagine, can it be the Astral\nLight. Those unable to penetrate beyond the dead letter of the\nPuranas, have occasionally confused Akasa with Prakriti, with\nEther, and even with the visible Sky! It is true also that those\nwho have invariably translated the term Akasa by \"Ether\"\n(Wilson, for instance), finding it called \"the material cause\nof sound\" possessing, moreover, this *one single property\n*(Vishnu Purana), have ignorantly imagined it to be \"material,\"\nin the physical sense. True, again, that if the characteristics\nare accepted literally, then, since nothing material or physical,\nand therefore conditioned and temporary can be immortal -- according\nto metaphysics and philosophy -- it would follow that Akasa is\nneither infinite nor immortal. But all this is erroneous, since\nboth the words *Pradhana*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 256 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(primeval matter) and *sound*,* *as a property,\nhave been misunderstood; the former term (Pradhana) being certainly\nsynonymous with *Mulaprakriti *and Akasa, and the latter\n(sound) with the Verbum, the Word or the Logos. This is easy to\ndemonstrate; for it is shown in the following sentences in Vishnu\nPurana: \"In the beginning there was neither day nor night,\nnor sky, nor earth, nor darkness, nor light. . . . . Save only\n**O**NE, unapprehensible by intellect, or that which\nis Brahma and Pums (Spirit) and Pradhana (primordial matter).\"\n. . . . (Book I., ch. ii.).\n\nNow, what is Pradhana, if it is not Mulaprakriti, the root of\nall, in another aspect? For Pradhana, though said further on to\nmerge into the Deity as everything else does, in order to leave\nthe ONE absolute during the Pralaya, yet is held as infinite and\nimmortal. The Commentator describes the Deity as: \"One *Pradhanika\n*Brahma Spirit: THAT, was,\" and interprets the compound\nterm as a substantive, not as a derivative word used attributively,\n*i.e.*, like something conjoined with Pradhana.* Hence\nPradhana even in the Puranas is an aspect of Parabrahmam, not\nan evolution, and must be the same as the Vedantic Mulaprakriti.\n\"Prakriti in its *primary *state is Akasa,\" says\na Vedantin scholar (see \"Five Years of Theosophy,\" p.\n169). It is almost abstract Nature.\n\nAkasa, then, is Pradhana in another form, and as such cannot be\nEther, the ever-invisible agent, courted even by physical Science.\nNor is it Astral Light. It is, as said, the *noumenon *of\nthe seven-fold differentiated Prakriti** -- the ever immaculate\n\"Mother\" of the *fatherless *Son,* *who\nbecomes \"Father\" on the lower manifested plane. For\nMAHAT is the first product of Pradhana, or Akasa, and Mahat --\nUniversal intelligence \"whose *characteristic property\n*is Buddhi\" -- is no other than the *Logos*,*\n*for he is called \"Eswara\" Brahma, Bhava, etc. (*See\nLinga Purana*,* *sec. lxx. 12* et seq.; *and\nVayu Purana, but especially the former Purana -- prior, section\nviii., 67-74). He is, in short, the \"Creator\" or the\ndivine mind in creative operation, \"the cause of all things.\"\nHe is\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The student has to note, moreover, that the Purana is a dualistic\nsystem, not evolutionary, and that, in this respect, far more\nwill be found, from an esoteric standpoint, in Sankhya, and even\nin the *Manava*-*dharma*-*Sastra*,* *however\nmuch the latter differs from the former.\n\n** In the Sankhya philosophy, the seven Prakritis or \"productive\nproductions\" are *Mahat*,* Ahamkara*,* *and\nthe *five* *tanmatras. *See* *\"*Sankhya*-*karika*,\"*\n*III., and the Commentary thereon.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 257 AKASA IS NOT ETHER.\n\nthe \"first-born\" of whom the Puranas tell us that \"Mahat\nand matter are the inner and outer boundaries of the Universe,\"\nor, in our language, the negative and the positive poles of dual\nnature (abstract and concrete), for the Purana adds: \"In\nthis manner -- as were the *seven *forms (principles) of\nPrakriti reckoned from Mahat to Earth -- so at the time of pralaya\n(pratyahara) these seven successively re-enter into each other.\nThe egg of Brahma (Sarva-mandala) is dissolved with its seven\nzones (dwipa), seven oceans, seven regions, etc.\" (Vishnu\nPurana, Book vi., ch. iv.)*\n\nThese are the reasons why the Occultists refuse to give the name\nof Astral Light to Akasa, or to call it Ether. \"In my Father's\nhouse are many mansions,\" may be contrasted with the occult\nsaying, \"In our Mother's house there are seven mansions,\"\nor planes, the lowest of which is above and around us -- the Astral\nLight.\n\nThe elements, whether simple or compound, could not have remained\nthe same since the commencement of the evolution of our chain.\nEverything in the Universe progresses steadily in the Great Cycle,\nwhile incessantly going up and down in the smaller cycles. Nature\nis never stationary during manvantara, as it is ever *becoming*,**\nnot simply *being; *and mineral, vegetable, and human life\nare always adapting their organisms to the then reigning Elements,\nand therefore *those *Elements were then fitted for them,\nas they are now for the life of present humanity. It will only\nbe in the next, or fifth, Round that the fifth Element, *Ether\n*--* *the gross body of Akasa, if it can be called\neven that --\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* No use to say so to the Hindus, who know their Puranas by heart,\nbut very useful to remind our Orientalists and those Westerns\nwho regard Wilson's translations as authoritative, that in his\nEnglish translation of the Vishnu Purana he is guilty of the most\nludicrous contradictions and errors. So on this identical subject\nof the seven Prakritis or the seven zones of Brahma's egg, the\ntwo accounts differ totally. In Vol. 1, page 40, the egg is said\nto be externally invested by seven envelopes -- Wilson comments:\n\"by Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and Ahamkara\" (which last\nword does not exist in the Sanskrit texts); and in vol. v., p.\n198, of the same Vishnu Purana it is written, \"in this manner\nwere the seven forms of nature (Prakriti) reckoned from Mahat\nto Earth\" (?). Between Mahat or Maha-Buddhi and \"Water,\netc.,\" the difference is very considerable.\n\n** According to the great metaphysician Hegel also. For him Nature\nwas a *perpetual becoming. *A purely esoteric conception.\nCreation or Origin, in the Christian sense of the term, is absolutely\nunthinkable. As the above-quoted thinker said: \"God (the\nUniversal Spirit) *objectivises himself as Nature*,*\n*and again rises out of it.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 258 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwill, by becoming a familiar fact of Nature to all men, as air\nis familiar to us now, cease to be as at present hypothetical,\nand also an \"agent\" for so many things. And only during\nthat Round will those higher senses, the growth and development\nof which Akasa subserves, be susceptible of a complete expansion.\nAs already indicated, a *partial *familiarity with the\ncharacteristic of matter -- permeability -- which should be developed\nconcurrently with the sixth sense, may be expected to develop\nat the proper period in this Round. But with the next element\nadded to our resources in the next Round, *permeability *will*\n*become so manifest a characteristic of matter, that the densest\nforms of this will seem to man's perceptions as obstructive to\nhim as a thick fog, and no more.\n\nLet us return to the life-cycle now. Without entering at length\nupon the description given of the *higher *LIVES, we must\ndirect our attention at present simply to the earthly beings and\nthe earth itself. The latter, we are told, is built up for the\nfirst Round by the \"Devourers\" which disintegrate and\ndifferentiate the germs of other lives in the Elements; pretty\nmuch, it must be supposed, as in the present stage of the world,\nthe *aerobes *do, when, undermining and loosening the chemical\nstructure in an organism, they transform animal matter and generate\nsubstances that vary in their constitutions. Thus Occultism disposes\nof the so-called Azoic age of Science, for it shows that there\nnever was a time when the Earth was without life upon it. Wherever\nthere is an atom of matter, a particle or a molecule, even in\nits most gaseous condition, there is life in it, however latent\nand unconscious. \"*Whatsoever quits the Laya State*,*\nbecomes active life; it is drawn into the vortex of ***MOTION***\n*(*the alchemical solvent of Life*)*; Spirit and\nMatter are the two States of the ***ONE**,*\nwhich is neither Spirit nor Matter*,* both being the absolute\nlife*,* latent.*\"* *(*Book of Dzyan*,*\nComm. III.*,* par. ***18**). . . *.\n*\"*Spirit is the first differentiation of *(*and\nin*)* ***SPACE***; and Matter the first\ndifferentiation of Spirit. That, which is neither Spirit nor matter\n*--* that is*** IT*** *--* the\nCauseless ***CAUSE*** of Spirit and Matter*,*\nwhich are the Cause of Kosmos. And ***THAT***\nwe call the ***ONE LIFE*** or the Intra*-*Cosmic\nBreath.*\"\n\nOnce more we will say -- *like must produce like*. Absolute\nLife cannot produce an inorganic atom whether single or complex,\nand there is life\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 259 ATOMS ARE INVISIBLE LIVES.\n\neven in *laya *just as a man in a profound cataleptic state\n-- to all appearance a corpse -- is still a living being.\n\nWhen the \"Devourers\" (in whom the men of science are\ninvited to see, with some show of reason, atoms of the Fire-Mist,\nif they will, as the Occultist will offer no objection to this);\nwhen the \"Devourers,\" we say, have differentiated \"the\nfire-atoms\" by a peculiar process of segmentation, the latter\nbecome life-germs, which aggregate according to the laws of cohesion\nand affinity. Then the life-germs produce lives of another kind,\nwhich work on the structure of our globes. * * * *\n\nThus, in the first Round, the globe, having been built by the\nprimitive fire-lives, *i.e.*, formed into a sphere -- had\nno solidity, nor qualifications, save a cold brightness, nor form\nnor colour; it is only towards the end of the First Round that\nit developed one Element which from its inorganic, so to say,\nor simple Essence became now in our Round the fire we know throughout\nthe system. The Earth was in her first rupa, the essence of which\nis the Akasic principle named *** \"that which is now known\nas, and very erroneously termed, Astral Light, which Eliphas Levi\ncalls \"the imagination of Nature,\"|| probably to avoid\ngiving it its correct name, as others do.\n\n\"*It is through and from the radiations of the seven bodies\nof the seven orders of Dhyanis*,* that the seven discrete\nquantities *(*Elements*),* whose motion and harmonious\nUnion produce the manifested Universe of Matter*,* are\nborn.*\"* *(*Commentary.*)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n|| Speaking of it in his Preface to the \"History of Magic\"\nEliphas Levi says: \"It is through this Force that all the\nnervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it\n-- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have\nour dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural\nvisions take place. . . . . Astral Light, acting under the impulsion\nof powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers\nin all things. . . . God created it on that day when he said:\n*Fiat Lux*,* *and it is directed by the *Egregores*,*\ni.e.*,* *the chiefs of the souls who are the spirits\nof energy and action.\" Eliphas Levi ought to have added that\nthe astral light, or primordial substance, if matter at all, is\nthat which, called *Light*,* ***L**UX,\nesoterically explained, *is the body of those Spirits themselves*,*\nand their very essence. Our physical light is the manifestation\non our plane *and the reflected radiance of the *Divine\n*Light emanating from the collective body of those who are\ncalled the \"**L**IGHTS\" and the \"**F**LAMES.\"\nBut no other Kabalist has ever had the talent of heaping up one\ncontradiction on the other, of making one paradox chase another\nin the same sentence and in such flowing language, as Eliphas\nLevi. He leads his reader through the most lovely, gorgeously\nblooming valleys, to strand him after all on a desert and barren\nrocky island.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 260 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe Second Round brings into manifestation the second element\n**A**IR, that element, the purity of which would\nensure continuous life to him who would use it. There have been\ntwo occultists only in Europe who have discovered and even partially\napplied it in practice, though its composition has always been\nknown among the highest Eastern Initiates. The ozone of the modern\nchemists is poison compared with the real universal solvent which\ncould never be thought of unless it existed in nature. \"*From\nthe second Round*,* Earth -*- *hitherto a foetus\nin the matrix of Space *--* began its real existence: it\nhad developed individual sentient life*,* its second principle.\nThe second corresponds to the sixth *(*principle*)*;\nthe second is life continuous*,* the other*,* temporary.*\"\n\nThe* Third *Round developed the *third *Principle\n-- **W**ATER; while the Fourth transformed the gaseous\nfluids and plastic form of our globe into the hard, crusted, grossly\nmaterial sphere we are living on. \"Bhumi\" has reached\nher *fourth *principle. To this it may be objected that\nthe law of analogy, so much insisted upon, is broken. Not at all.\nEarth will reach her true ultimate form -- (inversely in this\nto man) -- her body shell -- only toward the end of the manvantara\nafter the Seventh Round. Eugenius Philalethes was right when he\nassured his readers *on his word of honour *that no one\nhad yet seen *the Earth *(*i.e.*,* ***M**ATTER\nin its essential form). Our globe is, so far, in its *Kamarupic\n*state* *--* *the astral body of desires of\n*Ahamkara*,* *dark Egotism, the progeny of Mahat,\non the lower plane. . . .\n\nIt is not molecularly constituted matter -- least of all the human\nbody (*sthulasarira*)* *--* *that is the\ngrossest of all our \"principles,\" but verily the *middle*\nprinciple, the real animal centre; whereas our body is but its\nshell, the irresponsible factor and medium through which the beast\nin us acts all its life. Every intellectual theosophist will understand\nmy real meaning. Thus the idea that the human tabernacle is built\nby countless *lives*, just in the same way as the rocky\ncrust of our Earth was, has nothing repulsive in it for the true\nmystic. Nor can Science oppose the occult teaching, for it is\nnot because the microscope will ever fail to detect the ultimate\nliving atom or life, that it can reject the doctrine.\n\n(*c*) Science teaches us that the living as well as the\ndead organism of both man and animal are swarming with bacteria\nof a hundred various\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 261 THE OCCULT CHEMISTRY.\n\nkinds; that from without we are threatened with the invasion of\nmicrobes with every breath we draw, and from within by leucomaines,\naerobes, anaerobes, and what not. But Science never yet went so\nfar as to assert with the occult doctrine that our bodies, as\nwell as those of animals, plants, and stones, are themselves altogether\nbuilt up of such beings; which, except larger species, no microscope\ncan detect. So far, as regards the purely animal and material\nportion of man, Science is on its way to discoveries that will\ngo far towards corroborating this theory. Chemistry and physiology\nare the two great magicians of the future, who are destined to\nopen the eyes of mankind to the great physical truths. With every\nday, the identity between the animal and physical man, between\nthe plant and man, and even between the reptile and its nest,\nthe rock, and man -- is more and more clearly shown. The physical\nand chemical constituents of all being found to be identical,\nchemical science may well say that there is no difference between\nthe matter which composes the ox and that which forms man. But\nthe Occult doctrine is far more explicit. It says: --- Not only\nthe chemical compounds are the same, but the same infinitesimal\n*invisible lives *compose the atoms of the bodies of the\nmountain and the daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant, and\nof the tree which shelters him from the sun. Each particle --\nwhether you call it organic or inorganic -- *is a life. *Every\natom and molecule in the Universe is both *life*-*giving\n*and* death-giving *to that form, inasmuch as it builds\nby aggregation universes and the ephemeral vehicles ready to receive\nthe transmigrating soul, and as eternally destroys and changes\nthe *forms *and expels those souls from their temporary\nabodes. It creates and kills; it is self-generating and self-destroying;\nit brings into being, and annihilates, that mystery of mysteries\n-- the *living body *of man, animal, or plant, every second\nin time and space; and it generates equally life and death, beauty\nand ugliness, good and bad, and even the agreeable and disagreeable,\nthe beneficent and maleficent sensations. It is that mysterious\n**L**IFE, represented collectively by countless myriads\nof lives, that follows in its own sporadic way, the hitherto incomprehensible\nlaw of Atavism; that copies family resemblances as well as those\nit finds impressed in the aura of the generators of every future\nhuman being, a mystery, in short, that will receive fuller attention\nelsewhere. For the present, one instance may be cited in illustration.\nModern science begins to find out that ptomaine (the alkaloid\npoison generated by decaying matter and corpses -- a* life\n*also) extracted\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 262 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwith the help of volatile ether, yields a smell as strong and\nequal to that of the freshest orange-blossoms; but that free from\noxygen, these alkaloids yield either a most sickening, disgusting\nsmell, or the most agreeable aroma which recalls that of the most\ndelicately scented flowers. And it is suspected that such blossoms\nowe their agreeable smell to the poisonous ptomaine; the venomous\nessence of certain mushrooms (fungi) being nearly identical with\nthe venom of the cobra of India, the most deadly of serpents.*\nThus, having discovered the effects, Science has to find their\nPRIMARY CAUSES; and this it can never do without the help of the\nold sciences, of alchemy, occult botany and physics. We are taught\nthat every physiological change, in addition to pathological phenomena;\ndiseases -- nay, life itself -- or rather the objective phenomena\nof life, produced by certain conditions and changes in the tissues\nof the body which allow and force life to act in that body; that\nall this is due to those unseen CREATORS and DESTROYERS that are\ncalled in such a loose and general way, microbes.** Such\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*The French savants Arnaud, Gautier, and Villiers, have found\nin the saliva of living men the same venomous alkaloid as in that\nof the toad, the salamander, the cobra, and the trigonocephalus\nof Portugal. It is proven that venom of the deadliest kind, whether\ncalled ptomaine, or leucomaine, or alkaloid, is generated by living\nmen, animals, and plants. The same savant, Gautier, discovered\nan alkaloid in the fresh meat of an ox and in its brains, and\na venom which he calls Xanthocreatinine similar to the substance\nextracted from the poisonous saliva of reptiles. It is the muscular\ntissues, as being the most active organ in the animal economy,\nthat are suspected of being the generators or factors of venoms,\nhaving the same importance as carbonic acid and urea in the functions\nof life, which venoms are the ultimate products of inner combustion.\nAnd though it is not yet fully determined whether poisons can\nbe generated by the animal system of living beings without the\nparticipation and interference of microbes, it is ascertained\nthat the animal does produce venomous substances in its physiological\nor living state.\n\n** It might be supposed that these \"fiery lives\" and\nthe microbes of science are identical. This is not true. The \"fiery\nlives\" are the seventh and highest subdivision of the plane\nof matter, and correspond in the individual with the One Life\nof the Universe, though only on that plane. The microbes of science\nare the first and lowest sub-division on the second plane -- that\nof material *prana* (or life). The physical body of man\nundergoes a complete change of structure every seven years, and\nits destruction and preservation are due to the alternate function\nof the fiery lives as \"destroyers\" and \"builders.\"\nThey are \"builders\" by sacrificing themselves in the\nform of vitality to restrain the destructive influence of the\nmicrobes, and, by supplying the microbes with what is necessary,\nthey compel them under that restraint to build up the material\nbody and its cells. They are \"destroyers\" also when\nthat restraint is [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 263 PARACELSUS DIED TOO EARLY.\n\nexperimenters as Pasteur are the best friends and helpers of the\nDestroyers and the worst enemies of the Creators -- if the latter\nwere not at the same time destroyers too. However it may be, one\nthing is sure in this: The knowledge of these primary causes and\nof the ultimate essence of every element, of its lives, their\nfunctions, properties, and conditions of change -- constitutes\nthe basis of MAGIC. Paracelsus was, perhaps, the only Occultist\nin Europe, during the last centuries since the Christian era,\nwho was versed in this mystery. Had not a criminal hand put an\nend to his life, years before the time allotted him by Nature,\nphysiological Magic would have fewer secrets for the civilized\nworld than it now has.\n\n(*d*) But what has the Moon to do in all this? we may be\nasked. What have \"Fish, Sin and Moon\" in the apocalyptic\nsaying of the Stanza to do in company with the \"Life-microbes\"?\nWith the latter nothing, except availing themselves of the tabernacle\nof clay prepared by them; with divine perfect man everything,\nsince \"Fish, Sin and Moon\" make conjointly the three\nsymbols of the immortal Being.\n\nThis is all that can be given. Nor does the writer pretend to\nknow more of this strange symbol than may be inferred about it\nfrom exoteric religions; from the mystery perhaps, which underlies\nthe *Matsya* (fish)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] removed and the microbes,\nunsupplied with vital constructive energy, are left to run riot\nas destructive *agents*. Thus, during the first half of\na man's life (the first *five* periods of seven years each)\nthe \"fiery lives\" are indirectly engaged in the process\nof building up man's material body; life is on the ascending scale,\nand the force is used in construction and increase. After this\nperiod is passed the age of retrogression commences, and, the\nwork of the \"fiery lives\" exhausting their strength,\nthe work of destruction and decrease also commences.\n\nAn analogy between cosmic events in the descent of spirit into\nmatter for the first half of a manvantara (planetary as human)\nand its ascent at the expense of matter in the second half, may\nhere be traced. These considerations have to do solely with the\nplane of matter, but the restraining influence of the \"fiery\nlives\" on the lowest sub-division of the second plane --\nthe microbes -- is confirmed by the fact mentioned in the foot-note\non Pasteur (*vide supra*)* *that the cells of the\norgans, when they do not find sufficient oxygen for themselves,\nadapt themselves to that condition and form *ferments*,\nwhich, by absorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with\nthem, ruin the latter. Thus the process is commenced by one cell\nrobbing its neighbour of the source of its vitality when the supply\nis insufficient; and the ruin so commenced steadily progresses.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 264 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*Avatar *of Vishnu, the Chaldean Oannes -- the Man-Fish,\nrecorded in the imperishable sign of the Zodiac, *Pisces*,*\n*and running throughout the two Testaments in the personages\nof Joshua \"Son of the Fish (Nun)\" and Jesus; the allegorical\n\"Sin\" or Fall of Spirit into matter, and the Moon --\nin so far as it relates to the \"Lunar\" ancestors, the\nPitris.\n\nFor the present it may be as well to remind the reader that while\nthe Moon-goddesses were connected in every mythology, especially\nthe Grecian, with child-birth, because of the lunar influence\non women and conception, the occult and actual connection of our\nsatellite with fecundation is to this day unknown to physiology,\nwhich regards every popular practice in this reference as gross\nsuperstition. As it is useless to discuss them in detail, we may\nonly stop at present to discuss the lunar symbology casually,\nto show that the said superstition belongs to the most ancient\nbeliefs, and even to Judaism -- the basis of Christianity. With\nthe Israelites, the chief function of Jehovah was child-giving,\nand the esotericism of the Bible, interpreted Kabalistically,\nshows undeniably the Holy of Holies in the temple to be only the\nsymbol of the womb. This is now proven beyond doubt and cavil,\nby the *numerical *reading of the Bible in general, and\nof Genesis especially. This idea must certainly have been borrowed\nby the Jews from the Egyptians and Indians, whose Holy of Holies\nwas, and with the latter is to this day, symbolised by the King's\nchamber in the Great Pyramid (see \"*Source of Measures*\")*\n*and the Yoni symbols of exoteric Hinduism. To make the whole\nclearer and to show at the same time the enormous difference in\nthe spirit of interpretation and the original meaning of the same\nsymbols between the ancient Eastern Occultists and the Jewish\nKabalists we refer the reader to Book II., \"The Holy of Holies.\"*\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA VII. -- Continued.\n\n6. **F**ROM THE FIRST-BORN (*primitive*,*\nor the first man*)* *THE THREAD BETWEEN THE SILENT\nWATCHER AND HIS SHADOW BECOMES MORE\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Phallic worship has developed only with the loss of the keys\nto the true meaning of the symbols. It was the last and most fatal\nturning point from the highway of truth and divine knowledge into\nthe side path of fiction, raised into dogma through human falsification\nand hierarchic ambition.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 265 MAN, THE SHADOW OF HIS PROTOTYPE.\n\nSTRONG AND RADIANT WITH EVERY CHANGE (*re*-*incarnation*)*\n*(*a*)*. ***T**HE MORNING SUN-LIGHT\nHAS CHANGED INTO NOON-DAY GLORY . . . .\n\n(*a*) This sentence: \"The thread between the *silent\nwatcher *and his *shadow *(man) becomes stronger\"\n-- with every re-incarnation -- is another psychological mystery,\nthat will find its explanation in Book II. For the present it\nwill suffice to say that the \"Watcher\" and his \"Shadows\"\n-- the latter numbering as many as there are re-incarnations for\nthe monad -- are one. The Watcher, or the divine prototype, is\nat the upper rung of the ladder of being; the shadow, at the lower.\nWithal, the *Monad *of every living being, unless his moral\nturpitude breaks the connection and runs loose and \"astray\ninto the lunar path\" -- to use the Occult expression -- *is\nan individual Dhyan Chohan*,* distinct from others*,*\na kind of spiritual individuality of its own*,* *during\none special Manvantara. Its *Primary*,* *the Spirit\n(Atman) is one, of course, with *Paramatma *(the one Universal\nSpirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the *Buddhi*,*\n*is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence; and it\nis in this that lies the mystery of that *ubiquity*,*\n*which was discussed a few pages back. \"My Father, that\nis in Heaven, and I -- are one,\" -- says the Christian Scripture;\nin this, at any rate, it is the faithful echo of the esoteric\ntenet.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA VII. -- Continued.\n\n7. **T**HIS IS THY PRESENT WHEEL -- SAID THE **F**LAME\nTO THE **S**PARK. **T**HOU ART MYSELF,\nMY IMAGE AND MY SHADOW.** I** HAVE CLOTHED MYSELF\nIN THEE, AND THOU ART MY VAHAN (*vehicle*)* *TO\nTHE DAY, \"**B**E WITH US,\" WHEN THOU SHALT\nRE-BECOME MYSELF AND OTHERS, THYSELF AND ME (*a*), THEN\nTHE BUILDERS, HAVING DONNED THEIR FIRST CLOTHING, DESCEND ON RADIANT\nEARTH, AND REIGN OVER MEN -- WHO ARE THEMSELVES (*b*).\n\n(*a*) The day when \"the spark will re-become the Flame\n(man will merge into his Dhyan Chohan) myself and others, thyself\nand me,\" as the Stanza has it -- means this: In *Paranirvana\n*--* *when *Pralaya *will have reduced not only\nmaterial and psychical bodies, but even the spiritual *Ego*(*s*)*\n*to their original principle -- the Past, Present, and even\nFuture\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 266 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nHumanities, like all things, will be one and the same. Everything\nwill have re-entered the *Great Breath. *In other words,\neverything will be \"merged in Brahma\" or the divine\nunity.\n\nIs this annihilation, as some think? Or *Atheism*,*\n*as other critics -- the worshippers of a *personal *deity\nand believers in an unphilosophical paradise -- are inclined to\nsuppose? Neither. It is worse than useless to return to the question\nof implied atheism in that which is *spirituality *of a\nmost refined character. To see in Nirvana annihilation amounts\nto saying of a man plunged in a sound *dreamless *sleep*\n*--* one that leaves no impression on the physical memory\nand brain*,* because the sleeper*'*s Higher Self\nis in its original state of absolute consciousness *during\nthose hours -- that he, too, is annihilated. The latter simile\nanswers only to one side of the question -- the most material;\nsince* re*-*absorption *is by no means such a \"dreamless\nsleep,\" but, on the contrary, *absolute *existence,\nan unconditioned unity, or a state, to describe which human language\nis absolutely and hopelessly inadequate. The only approach to\nanything like a comprehensive conception of it can be attempted\nsolely in the panoramic visions of the soul, through spiritual\nideations of the divine monad. Nor is the individuality -- *nor\neven the essence of the personality*,* *if any be left\nbehind -- lost, because re-absorbed. For, however limitless --\nfrom a human standpoint -- the paranirvanic state, it has yet\na limit in Eternity. Once reached, the same monad will *re*-*emerge\n*therefrom, as a still higher being, on a far higher plane,\nto recommence its cycle of perfected activity. The human mind\ncannot in its present stage of development transcend, scarcely\nreach this plane of thought. It totters here, on the brink of\nincomprehensible Absoluteness and Eternity.\n\n(*b*)* *The \"Watchers\" reign over man\nduring the whole period of *Satya Yuga *and the smaller\nsubsequent yugas, down to the beginning of the Third Root Race;\nafter which it is the Patriarchs, Heroes, and the Manes (*see\nEgyptian Dynasties enumerated by the priests to Solon*),*\n*the incarnated Dhyanis of a lower order, up to King Menes\nand the human kings of other nations; all were recorded carefully.\nIn the views of symbologists this *Mythopoeic Age *is of\ncourse only regarded as a fairy tale. But since traditions and\neven Chronicles of such dynasties of *divine *Kings --\nof gods reigning over men followed by dynasties of Heroes or Giants\n-- exist in the annals of every nation, it is difficult to understand\nhow all the peoples under the sun, some of whom are separated\nby vast\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 267 EARTH, PEOPLED FROM HEAVEN.\n\noceans and belong to different hemispheres, such as the ancient\nPeruvians and Mexicans, as well as the Chaldeans, could have worked\nout the same \"fairy tales\" in the same order of events.*\nHowever, as the Secret Doctrine teaches *history *--*\n*which, for being esoteric and traditional, is none the less\nmore reliable than profane history -- we are as entitled to our\nbeliefs as anyone else, whether religionist or sceptic. And that\nDoctrine says that the Dhyani-Buddhas of the two higher groups,\nnamely, the \"Watchers\" or the \"Architects,\"\nfurnished the many and various races with divine kings and leaders.\nIt is the latter who taught humanity their arts and sciences,\nand the former who revealed to the incarnated Monads that had\njust shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms -- and who\nhad, therefore, lost every recollection of their divine origin\n-- the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds. (See\nBook II., \"Divine Dynasties.\")\n\nThus, as expressed in the Stanza, the Watchers descended on Earth\nand reigned over men -- \"*who are themselves.*\"*\n*The reigning kings had finished their cycle on Earth and\nother worlds, in the preceding Rounds. In the future manvantaras\nthey will have risen to higher systems than our planetary world;\nand it is the Elect of our Humanity, the Pioneers on the hard\nand difficult path of Progress, who will take the places of their\npredecessors. The next great Manvantara will witness the men of\nour own life-cycle becoming the instructors and guides of a mankind\nwhose Monads may now yet be imprisoned -- semi-conscious -- in\nthe most intellectual of the animal kingdom, while their lower\nprinciples will be animating, perhaps, the highest specimens of\nthe Vegetable world.\n\nThus proceed the cycles of the septenary evolution, in Septennial\nnature; the Spiritual or divine; the psychic or semi-divine; the\nintellectual, the passional, the instinctual, or *cognitional;\n*the semi-corporeal and the purely material or physical natures.\nAll these evolve and progress cyclically, passing from one into\nanother, in a double, centrifugal and centripetal way, *one\n*in their ultimate essence, *seven *in their aspects.\nThe lowest, of course, is the one depending upon and subservient\nto\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See the \"Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches,\n11,500 years ago,\" by Auguste le Plongeon, who shows the\nidentity between the Egyptian rites and beliefs and those of the\npeople he describes. The ancient hieratic alphabets of the Maya\nand the Egyptians are almost identical.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 268 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nour five physical senses.* Thus far, for individual, human, sentient,\nanimal and vegetable life, each the microcosm of its higher macrocosm.\nThe same for the Universe, which manifests periodically, for purposes\nof the collective progress of the countless *lives*,*\n*the outbreathings of the *One Life; *in order that\nthrough the *Ever*-*Becoming*,* *every cosmic\natom in this infinite Universe, passing from the formless and\nthe intangible, through the mixed natures of the semi-terrestrial,\ndown to matter in full generation, and then back again, reascending\nat each new period higher and nearer the final goal; that each\natom, we say, *may reach through individual merits and efforts\n*that plane where it re-becomes the one unconditioned **A**LL.\nBut between the Alpha and the Omega there is the weary \"Road\"\nhedged in by thorns, that \"goes down first, then --\n\nWinds up hill all the way\n\nYes, to the very end . . . . .\"\n\nStarting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and\nmore into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every\natom in manifested *Space *--* *the *Pilgrim*,\nhaving struggled through and suffered in every form of life and\nbeing, is only at the bottom of the valley of matter, and half\nthrough his cycle, when he has identified himself with collective\nHumanity. This, *he has made in his own image. *In order\nto progress upwards and homewards, the \"God\" has now\nto ascend the weary uphill path of the Golgotha of Life. It is\nthe martyrdom of self-conscious existence. Like Visvakarman he\nhas to sacrifice *himself to himself *in order to redeem\nall creatures, to resurrect from the many into the *One Life.\n*Then he ascends into heaven indeed; where, plunged into the\nincomprehensible absolute Being and Bliss of Paranirvana, he reigns\nunconditionally, and whence he will re-descend again at the next\n\"coming,\" which one portion of humanity expects in its\ndead-letter sense as the *second advent*,* *and\nthe other as the last \"Kalki Avatar.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Which are in truth *seven *as shown later, on the authority\nof the oldest *Upanishads.*\n\n---------------------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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